Violin tone
ELEMENTS OF THE MEMORIAL
Information from the website of the Stiftung Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas
Poem »Auschwitz«
The metal frame of the water bowl contains the poem »Auschwitz« by the Italian Roma musician, composer and university teacher Santino Spinelli. In German and English, it lines the lake. On the fringes of the chronology, it can also be read in two different dialects of the Romanes.
Sunken in face
extinguished eyes
cold lips
silence
a torn heart
without breath
without words
no tears.
Poem of the Italian
Roma Santino Spinelli
Violin tone
Within the monument space created by glass walls and planting, music, an ever-changing violin tone, the piece »Mare Manuschenge« (»Our People«), composed by Romeo Franz, can be heard permanently. Romeo Franz also recorded it himself for the recording, which is permanently sounding at the memorial. The violin tone follows a minor tone conductor, which is at the foundation of the traditional music of the Sinti and is also characteristic in modern Sinti-Jazz and Sinti-Swing.
Water
In the middle of the clearing lies a circular lake about twelve meters in diameter, consisting of a tub of dark coated steel. With the appropriate light, it reflects the visitors, the trees, the sky and also the mighty Reichstag building. According to Karavan’s idea, the impression should be created that the lake is infinitely deep.
Triangular base with flower
From the middle of the lake rises a triangular granite base. According to Karavan, the triangle is a quote from the angular inmate markings in the camps. This pedestal sinks down to the depths every day at lunchtime and is brought back to the surface shortly afterwards with a fresh flower.
Stones with place names
Roughly broken stone slabs are embedded in the lawn around the lake, whose shape is reminiscent of shards (destruction, fragmentation, loss, injury). Some of these plates contain the names of 69 places where extermination, concentration and collection sites were located, or where executions of Sinti and Roma took place.